Tips For Good Living With Arthritis
When you have arthritis pain, there are a number of different things you can do in order to alleviate said pain. But one of the most effective methods of relieving pain is simply distracting yourself.
The mind is a powerful healing tool, one which many of us forget to use when our bodies are stiff and our joints are achy.
The moment you begin to feel pain, your brain focuses on it. Your attention becomes diverted to that part of the body and you begin to forget about all other things in your life – it’s no wonder the pain becomes so bad.
But while the brain can become hyper-focused on pain, it can be just as easily led to think about not being in pain. Here’s how.
Watch something
One of the easiest ways to begin to drive yourself to distraction is to turn your focus onto something else. You might want to pop a movie into your DVD player or begin to watch your favorite TV program. When you do this, you can begin to focus on the characters and their lives, as opposed to your own. If you have regular bouts of pain each day, at more or less specific times, you might want to choose one daily program to watch in order to create a ritual of avoiding the pain you feel.
Do something
Whenever pain begins to hit, start doing something else. This might include anything from knitting to gardening, walking to shopping. Find something else that will occupy your time and your attention in a way that will distract you from the pain. It doesn’t really matter what you choose do as long as you react immediately to the pain to find something else to focus your attention on.
Call someone
An easy way to distract yourself is to call someone else and begin to talk. Of course, within this conversation, try to avoid talking about your pain as that will only increase your chances of feeling more uncomfortable. Talk to a sibling, a parent, or a child to see what they’re doing and to begin to relax your body and your pain.
Thought stopping
A traditional psychological technique is thought stopping. This can be practiced in a number of ways. You might want to simply say NO to yourself each time you have a thought about pain, for example. This will begin to teach your brain that pain and NO are associated, which will eventually teach your brain to not think of pain as often. Another way to go about this practice is to use a rubber band to snap on your wrist each time you begin to think about pain. That way, you stop your thoughts immediately and can change the way you think.
Redirection of thinking
Instead of thinking about your pain, you should try to think about the places in your body that do not hurt. This way, you are always focusing on what’s good about your body instead of what’s bad about it. While this does take practice, it’s just like changing your mindset to be optimistic. Over time, redirecting your thoughts becomes a habit.
Push positive words into your mind
Try to think about positive words and ideas whenever you begin to feel pain. These might be things like: fluffy cats, smiling, children playing, etc. The more you try to think of things that make you feel good, the easier it can be to avoid the things which make you feel bad.
Distracting yourself is one of the best ways to handle pain without the problems of side effects and without needing to call a doctor help you manage the steps of your actions.
With time and with practice, you can easily learn to change the way you think, avoiding pain thoughts altogether. This practice is akin to those who are in a terrible accident, but still have the ability to help others, even though they themselves are in pain. By teaching the brain to focus on something else, you can overcome your own pain or at least the severity of your arthritis symptoms.
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